Interview for Laptorockers

Before we go to the interview, let me just recomend you to take a look at Damndogs facebook. They post pics, talk to the fans and give a heads up on what's going on with the band (they don't have interviews though! so don't stop visiting us here!).

So, this website Laptorockers was doing a remix contest of Damndogs songs a few days ago and the band was interviewed. Here it is:

Chris Cester and Mark Wilson already made name & fame as core members of the Australian rock outfit Jet, but have taken a different direction as DAMNDOGS. Completed by longtime friends Mitch McIvor and Louis Macklin, the band doesn't produce rock music à la Jet, but a unique style of their own.

Currently DAMNDOGS are running a remix contest here with us at Laptoprockers, offering a perfect opportunity to have a chat with Chris about what's driving him.

With Jet you guys more or less enjoyed the status of rockstars. The direction you took with DAMDOGS tends more to have an underground scope. How does that feel?

"With DAMNDOGS, people are more interested in the sound we are making than how quickly we 'made it', or how much money we earned or what we are trying to sound like, or any of that crap. It's clearly not in a Jet sort of 'realm', sonically speaking."

Is that why did you started DAMDOGS in the first place - or did you become sort of Jet tired?

"None of those reasons. DAMNDOGS has nothing to do with Jet at all. It started because my cousin Mitch and I had always wanted to make music together and Jet had some time off...so off we went."

Do you think DAMDOGS will get you back into the charts?

"If it did, that would be an incredible coup, given that at the moment the charts are full of formulaic nonsense, it's all the same song to me. No - we are on our own mission. We'd rather have a packed room of people who are having their minds blown than an interview with Matt Lauer. We're winning respect as an interesting band with a great live show, so those are our charts."

Why did you decide to put up 5 brand new tracks in a remix contest?

"We thought it would be a great new way for people to hear the band and also to differentiate DAMNDOGS from Jet. This EP is perfect for remixing, because the tones are cool, and the songs are quite sparse, which means there is plenty of room for imaginative remixers to do something interesting with it."

What do you expect or hope remixers will do with your music?

"Really I think we just want the people involved here to throw away the concept of the original song and give us back something that's inventive and interesting. The winning remix is going on our remix EP, and there are some stellar remixes already going on it, so I'd want people to really push themselves. We're all really excited to hear what people have done with this."

What will be next from DAMNDOGS?

"It's gonna be a big year for DAMNDOGS. We have some festival shows coming up in Australia this summer, which is December....but even before that, we have some more US shows lining up, on the East Coast. Following that, we will be in the studio making an LP. We can't wait to get there...we have 25 songs already and it's only September!!"